Paper ripped over eerie subway photo

New York Post draws criticism for photo of subway victim The man depicted in the haunting image was run down by a train "Snuff porn," one Twitter user labeled the image The photographer said he would talk to CNN only if he was paid (CNN) -- The man in the picture has his back to the camera. He's desperately clawing at a subway platform, looking right at the train that's bearing down on him as he stands on the tracks. It's a terrifying, heart-wrenching image, and it's generating a lot of criticism for the newspaper that used it on its front page -- the salty, sensational New York Post. Why didn't the photographer help? Why did the newspaper publish the photo? "NY Post should be ashamed of its misuse of humanity for its cover photo of a man about to be killed by a subway train," one person wrote on Twitter. "When does cruelty end." "Snuff porn," another user labeled it. A freelance photographer captured the image Monday after someone shoved the man, 58-year-old Ki-Suck Han, from a subway platform near Times Square. Seconds after photographer R. Umar Abbasi captured the images, the train fatally struck Ki. He died at a New York Hospital, leaving behind a wife and daughter. Police were continuing to look for the suspect in the case on Tuesday. Abbasi's image dominated the tabloid Post's cover on Tuesday. "Doomed," the headline read. "Pushed on the subway track, this man is about to die." In its story on the incident Tuesday, the Post reported Abbasi was waiting on the platform when he saw the man fall onto the tracks. He said he ran towards the oncoming train, firing his camera's flash to warn the driver. "I just started running, running, hoping that the driver could see my flash," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "In that moment, I just wanted to warn the train -- to try and save a life," the Post quoted him as saying. Some critics, however, questioned Abbasi's motives. One Twitter user questioned why someones first instinct would be not to help the man, but instead to "snap a photo of him about to die and sell it to the NY Post." Reached by CNN, Abbasi was adamant that he would talk to the network only for pay. The Post did not return a telephone call and two e-mails seeking comment. Media observers wondered Tuesday if the newspaper had gone too far this time. "Even if you accept that that photographer and other bystanders did everything they could to try to save the man, it's a separate question of what the Post should have done with that photo," Jeff Sonderman, a fellow at journalism think tank the Poyster Institute, wrote on the organization's website. "All journalists we've seen talking about it online concluded the Post was wrong to use the photo, especially on its front page." The Post is no stranger to walking up to the lines of journalistic ethics, and sometimes crossing them, with its pithy, often lurid, coverage of crime and other news in the Big Apple. "HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR," the newspaper once famously shouted from its cover. The Post shot is hardly the first news photo to generate ethics concerns. An Agence France-Presse photo that won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize generated controversy for its depiction of a girl in Afghanistan crying amid a number of bloody bodies. Also this year, the New York Times published a graphic image showing blood streaming from the body of a victim following a fatal August shooting at the Empire State Building. At the time, Poynter quoted a Times spokeswoman as saying the image was "a newsworthy photograph that shows the result and impact of a public act of violence." CNN's Pauline Kim and Yon Pomrenze contributed to this report.

Asia coal export boom brings no bonus for US taxpayers

A haul truck works a coal seam at a mine in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming in this undated photo. U.S. taxpayers are set to miss out on billions of dollars in royalty payments in coming years as a larger share of the black rock pulled from the coal-rich Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana is shipped to Asia. By Patrick Rucker Reuters WASHINGTON -- U.S. miners who are booking big profits on coal sales to Asia are enjoying an accounting windfall to boot.  By valuing coal at low domestic prices rather than the much higher price fetched overseas, coal producers can dodge the larger royalty payout when mining federal land. The practice stands to pad the bottom line for the mining sector if Asian exports surge in coming years as the industry hopes, a Reuters investigation has found. Current and former regulators say their supervisory work has lagged the mining industry as it eyed markets across the Pacific. They say they will now give the royalty question a close look. "We are committed to collecting every dollar due," said Patrick Etchart, spokesman for the Office of Natural Resources Revenue, which collects federal royalties. At issue is the black rock pulled from the coal-rich Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana. Miners there say they abide by the letter of royalty rules that call for the government to get a 12.5 percent cut on coal sold under federal lease. The question is: At what point is that coal valued? Most Powder River Basin coal is sold domestically, where prices have been depressed by a glut of natural gas and regulations meant to curb pollution. But Asian economies rely on coal to sustain growth, so the ton worth about $13 near the Powder River Basin mines last year fetched roughly 10 times that in China. After deducting costs like shipping by sea and rail, that ton of Powder River Basin coal sold in China last year would have returned about $30 to the miners, several industry analysts estimate. Coal is loaded onto rail cars leaving a coal mine in the Powder River Basin. Luther Lu, director at China-based Fenwei Energy Consulting, said the figure was closer to half that, with miners up against other costs that would have cut into their margin. Whatever the take-home for miners, several royalty experts said, the taxpayer is due a share of the final sale price overseas. Powder River Basin mining companies disagree and say that they are right to pay out royalties at the low domestic prices. "If you look at the regulations, we are not required to do a net-back," said Karla Kimrey, a spokeswoman for Cloud Peak Energy, referring to the return on Asian sales. The taxpayers' bite would be based on that number. The rules that govern Powder River Basin sales to Asia deserve a more rigorous review, and short royalty payments will not be tolerated, Etchart said. The royalties question will remain an important one as Asian coal exports look set to expand and the United States faces a fiscal crisis. "How do you justify paying royalties at anything less than the true value, particularly in these times of tight budgets?" said Autumn Hanna of the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense. $100 million short? Mining companies declined to explain how they book Asian coal sales, and their securities filings give only a partial picture of how miners operate in volatile energy markets. Industry and publicly available data, though, indicate that taxpayers stand to lose out. Paying royalties calculated on the net-back formula for Asian exports from Wyoming and Montana rather than on the benchmark domestic price would have yielded around $40 million in additional revenue for the government last year alone, according to data from Goldman Sachs and other analysts, and figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Extended to the last few years of increased Asian demand, that total could exceed $100 million in forgone royalties. The sum could balloon into billions of dollars if mining giants are allowed to ship 150 million tons of coal a year or more through the Pacific Northwest, as the industry wants. Of course, if the companies are more profitable because of lower royalty payments, they may well be paying more in corporate taxes, though some experts dispute the point. "A certain $1 collected on royalties is worth more than the unsure tax take," said Tom Sanzillo, a former deputy comptroller for New York state who has studied the economics of coal exports with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. For now, the debate over exports from the Powder River Basin is of limited scope: Less than 4 percent of the roughly 476 million tons of coal produced in Wyoming and Montana was exported last year, according to the EIA. Three-quarters of U.S. coal exports are bound for Europe or other non-Asian ports, much of that from private, not federal lands, in the Appalachian region. But Asian economies such as India and China cannot grow without abundant electricity, and that demand has opened a window for a U.S. coal sector long focused on delivering domestic power. 'Exports were not on the radar' Several large coal companies mine the Powder River Basin - a high, grassy plain in eastern Montana and Wyoming. Cloud Peak exclusively works that terrain, which is chiefly on federal land. The company was in a position to save tens of millions of dollars in recent years by their reading of royalty rules. Less than 5 percent of Cloud Peak coal was shipped to Asia last year, but that accounted for nearly 19 percent of total revenue, or about $290 million. A year earlier, Asian sales were only 3.4 percent of the total volume but 12 percent of revenue. Cloud Peak, Peabody Energy and Arch Coal all declined to explain how they book their Asia business, but a large share of Powder River Basin sales passes through traders. Sales to brokers and traders are allowed, but royalty rules assume that those buyers' economic interest is opposite to miners'. Sales to in-house or affiliated traders are due more scrutiny under the law. "We are familiar with the rules around both arms-length and non-arms-length transaction and fully comply with both," said Vic Svec, a Peabody Energy spokesman, referring to the principle that is supposed to guide such sales. Arch Coal declined to comment on their trading business, and Cloud Peak said it faces frequent audits from state and federal officials to make sure they follow the rules. "In my neighborhood, I don't stop at every block. I could. But that's not where the stop signs are," said Cloud Peak spokeswoman Karla Kimrey. "You can say you don't like the regulations, but we play by the rules." Former and current officials said the government has been slow to understand the power of foreign markets or protect the taxpayer's stake in those lucrative sales. "Exports were simply not on the radar," said Bob Abbey, who in May stepped down as head of the Bureau of Land Management, the agency that grants federal coal leases. A precedent in gas While the industry says it is acting above-board, outside lawyers point to a natural gas precedent that they say further indicates the issue is far from settled. In the late 1970s, Marathon Oil Corp. used a similar accounting system to settle royalties on natural gas that was produced in Alaska but sold to Japan. A federal court eventually told Marathon to pay out royalties based on the overseas value. Officials leveled a $10 million fine against Marathon. Peter Appel, a former Justice Department attorney, said the case shows that officials expect taxpayers to get a taste of the true gains on exported fuel. "This ruling should give officials confidence to give a hard look at coal sales," said Appel, who prosecuted cases for the DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Division and teaches at the University of Georgia School of Law. More from Open Channel: Toll authority quick to seek payment, not so good at refunding overpayments American held in Cuba wants US to sign non-aggression pact to pave release Cuba pushes swap: its spies jailed in US for  American jailed in Havana Livestock falling ill in fracking regions | Industry insider offers rebuttal Tobacco industry used trade pacts to try to snuff out anti-smoking laws Jeb Bush's reputation as education reformer gets a second look As fighting raged in Syria, Russia sent tons of cash to Damascus, records show One email exposes millions to ID theft risk in South Carolina cyberattack Jill Kelley email: Petraeus, Allen sought help hushing 'Bubba the Love Sponge' Follow Open Channel from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

'Just crazy': Outrage on the Web over photo capturing subway death

By Scott Stump, TODAY contributor A photo on the cover of Tuesday's New York Post depicting a man struggling to climb off a subway track before he was fatally struck by a train has drawn heated reactions — specifically chastising the paper and the photographer. Queens man Ki Suk Han, 58, died after he was pushed on the tracks by an unnamed attacker moments before an oncoming train arrived at the 49th Street N, R, Q subway platform in Manhattan on Monday afternoon, according to police. On Tuesday afternoon, police confirmed they had someone in custody in connection with the attack. The photographer who shot the chilling image, New York Post freelancer R. Umar Abbasi, has sparked outrage on social media from those wondering why he did not do something to help pull Han off the track instead of taking pictures. Story: Man questioned in case of NYC subway rider pushed to his death Abbasi told the New York Post that he started running toward Han and hitting the flash on his camera while shooting photos, hoping to catch the attention of the train's driver. "The most painful part was I could see him getting closer to the edge. He was getting so close,'' Abbasi told The Post. "And people were running toward him and the train. I didn't think about [the attacker] until after. In that moment, I just wanted to warn the train – to try and save a life." In the Twitterverse and elsewhere, many are not buying that explanation. One is hard-pressed to find anyone defending Abbasi's actions.  "Getting a conductor's attention with a flash — and maybe even blinding him with it — doesn't seem like the way you'd necessarily help someone that's clinging to the subway platform,'' wrote The Atlantic's Alexander Abad-Santos. ]]>

Man questioned in NYC subway rider's death

View more videos at: http://nbcnewyork.com. By Shimon Prokupecz and Jonathan Dienst, NBCNewYork.com Police have a man in custody believed to be the suspect who pushed a subway rider to his death on the subway tracks at 49th Street in Manhattan after an argument. The man's name was not immediately released. He is being questioned, a law enforcement official told NBC 4 New York. He is suspected of pushing 58-year-old Ki-Suk Han off the platform at the N, Q, R station Monday afternoon. Han was hit by a southbound Q train and died. Witnesses told police the suspect was mumbling to himself before he and Han began arguing on the platform.  A bystander recorded part of the fight between the two men and turned the video over to police, who released it to the public Monday night, and received several tips. The man who allegedly pushed Han is heard cursing and saying, in substance, "Leave me alone... stand in line, wait for the R train and that's it." He then pushed Han onto the tracks, police said. Han tried to climb back up onto the platform but died after getting trapped between the train and the platform's edge.  Witness Patrick Gomez, who was in the station, says he heard a "thud that didn't sound normal" when the train pulled into the station. "People are just standing there in fear and shock, not really knowing what's going on," he said. "Some people started running out of the platform, others just stood there." Read more news on NBCNewYork.com  He says police evacuated the platform within minutes. Mark Lennihan / AP Police stand outside a New York subway station after a man was killed there on Monday. Subway pushes are unusual. Among the more high-profile was the January 1999 death of Kendra Webdale. A former mental patient admitted he shoved her to her death. Following that, the state Legislature passed Kendra's Law, which lets mental health authorities supervise patients who live outside institutions to make sure they are taking their medications and aren't a threat to safety.

Lawsuit: Boy Scouts failed to stop pedophile

By James B. Kelleher, Reuters CHICAGO - A former Boy Scout who says he was sexually assaulted when he was 10 by his now-imprisoned former troop leader sued the Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday, citing recently released files the group secretly maintained on suspected molesters in its ranks. The lawsuit claims that the Boy Scouts allowed Thomas Hacker, a Scout leader barred from the group after a 1970s felony sex abuse conviction in Indiana, to rejoin as a volunteer in Illinois in the 1980s, and he went on to molest more boys, including the plaintiff. Hacker was arrested in 1988 and convicted in 1989 of the aggravated sexual assault of an 11-year-old member of his troop in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. Now 75, Hacker is serving two concurrent 50-year prison terms as a result of his conviction. His defense attorney in the 1989 case called him "a classic pedophile - and sick beyond that," according to a Chicago Tribune story at the time. The lawsuit filed Tuesday by a man identified only as John Doe claimed that Hacker sexually assaulted him when he was 10 years old  -- after Hacker re-joined the Scouts in Illinois. "While we have not seen this lawsuit, we deeply regret that there have been times when Scouts were abused, and for that we are very sorry and extend our deepest sympathies to victims," Boy Scouts of America spokesman Deron Smith said in a statement. The suit draws on details unearthed this fall when the Boy Scouts of America, one of the country's largest youth organizations, was forced by an Oregon Court to release internal documents they kept on scout leaders and volunteers who were suspected sexual predators. The files go back almost to the organization's founding in 1910 and were known as the "red files," the "perversion files" and the "ineligible volunteer files." Boy Scouts release secret child abuse files Roughly 20,000 pages of files, spanning from 1965 to 1985, were released this fall by order of the Oregon Supreme Court, after a jury in the state found the Scouts liable in a 1980s pedophile case and ordered it to pay nearly $20 million in damages. Ineligible volunteer list Lawyers involved in the Illinois case said it is one of the first to be filed with evidence gleaned from the massive document release. The records released this fall on about 1,200 "ineligible volunteers" contained a detailed dossier on Hacker.  That dossier included a warning from a Scout leader in Indiana to national officials that Hacker had been "arrested for homosexual activity with many boys both in Scouting and through the school in which he was teaching." Hacker was subsequently convicted of the felony sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy in the junior high school in Indiana where he worked. In a letter from the national office to the Indiana Scout council, a top official wrote: "Under no circumstances do we want registered in Scouting," according to the complaint. Lawyer releases list of alleged Boy Scout molesters Hacker was added on the secret "ineligible volunteer" list the national organization maintained, according to the lawsuit. But a decade later when he left Indiana and moved to Illinois and became active again in Scouting, no one conducted a background check or ran his name against the list of known and suspected pedophiles. That failure, the lawsuit claims, shows the Boy Scout's efforts to prevent pedophiles from infiltrating its ranks "did not function as it was intended, was flawed, and in many cases ineffective." The Boy Scouts of America says it now requires even suspected cases of child molestation to be reported immediately to law enforcement and says keeping the old files secret protects victims. Last week, a Texas appeals court sided with the group, saying the Scouts did not have to turn over its post-1985 files describing sexual abuse complaints against volunteers. "The Boy Scouts have taken the view that keeping these files secret protects the children," said Christopher Hurley, the Chicago attorney representing John Doe in the case filed Tuesday. "But in this case it obviously didn't work. It may protect the molesters and the Boy Scouts, but it's not in the best interests of children." The BSA's Smith said that in the past 30 years the group has added background checks and training programs, and requires law enforcement to be told when there are "even suspicions" of abuse. More content from NBCNews.com: Disability-compensation claims for veterans lag as 'VA backlog' worsens More than 20,000 students to miss school as teachers in Chicago suburb strike 'You killed Jesus' scrawled on Hanukkah menorah Video: Friend goes to get beer, finds kittens in freezer Witnesses: Man pushed to his death on NYC subway tracks after argument Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Same players, same disputes in fiscal cliff debate

NEW: House Democrats try to force a vote on Obama's tax plan Frustration mounts as a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff remains out of reach FedEx chief: Top business leaders look at Washington with "dismay" Polls show Americans would blame Republicans if no agreement emerges Washington (CNN) -- If insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result, then continuing negotiations on a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff might amount to little more than crazy talk. The same players are arguing about the same issue -- taxes -- in a repeat of budget showdowns of the past two years that failed to reach a comprehensive agreement. President Barack Obama's re-election in November, coupled with a perceived desire by congressional leaders to shed their reputation of dysfunction, raised expectations for a possible deal. However, with four weeks to go until the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts of the fiscal cliff get triggered, the two sides remain unable to resolve a central issue -- whether wealthy Americans should pay more taxes than they do now. Opinion: Beware the fiscal cliff deniers Johnson: 'Pres. Obama show us your plan' GOP deal rejected by White House Fred Smith, the chief executive officer of FedEx Corp., considered a bellwether on the economy, told CNN Tuesday that he and other top business leaders "look at the situation in Washington with complete amazement and dismay." "The problem is the ideological pinnings on both sides of this argument are so difficult to bridge," Smith said, adding it will "be hard for them to get a deal." Polls show that more Americans will blame Republicans, instead of Obama and Democrats, if the nation goes over the fiscal cliff without a deal. A Washington Post/Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday put the margin at 53%-27% in citing Republicans or Obama. A CNN/ORC International poll released last week showed 45% would blame congressional Republicans compared to 34% who would blame Obama. All signs point to a continuing standoff, at least for now. No formal negotiating sessions are known to be scheduled, though private talks between aides might be continuing behind the scenes. Obama and House Speaker John Boehner did not speak or get photographed together at Monday night's White House holiday reception for members of Congress, though one GOP source cautioned against reading anything political into the lack of interaction at a social event. At issue are competing proposals by Obama and House Republicans that coincide in some areas but differ on the tax-rate question. Republicans make budget counter-offer Obama demands the House immediately pass a measure already approved by the Senate to extend tax cuts for families making less than $250,000 a year while allowing rates to return to higher Clinton-era levels for wealthier households. Both sides agree that the 98% of Americans making less than $250,000 a year should avoid a tax hike when the tax cuts from the Bush administration expire on December 31, Obama and Democrats argue in calling for the House to guarantee that outcome now by passing the Senate measure. Once that happens, he and Democratic leaders promise, they will work out compromises on other deficit reduction steps sought by Republicans, such as reforms to the Medicare and Medicaid entitlement programs as part of further spending cuts. House Republicans led by Boehner made a major counter-proposal Monday, offering a series of steps to reduce the nation's chronic federal deficits by $2.2 trillion over 10 years. The GOP leaders gave ground by calling for $800 billion in deficit reduction through tax reform, including an unspecified amount from eliminating some deductions and loopholes. At the same time, they rejected the Democratic call for higher tax rates on wealthier Americans, contending the move would inhibit economic growth by raising taxes on small business owners, many of whom declare business profits on their personal income tax returns. The White House and Democratic leaders immediately rejected the Republican approach, saying it would require middle-class taxpayers to assume a greater burden while easing rates on the rich. "While their proposal may be serious, it is also a non-starter," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said Tuesday. "They know any agreement that raises taxes on the middle class in order to protect more unnecessary giveaways for the top 2% is doomed from the start." Conservative Republican Sen. Tom Coburn predicted rejection of the GOP proposal would doom any chance of an agreement. Opinion: GOP, break Grover Norquist's grip on you "I'm certain that if this is not good enough for the White House, we will go over the fiscal cliff," Coburn told CNN Monday night, adding the GOP offer was a compromise on taxes and spending compared to previous negotiations of the past two years. Another leading conservative voice in the Senate, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, criticized Boehner and other House GOP leaders for even offering more revenue as part of an agreement. "Republicans should not concede that the problem is not enough revenues," DeMint said Tuesday. "We need to continue to make the case that the government's too big, it's spending too much money and we don't need to be voting as Republicans to pay for the Democrat welfare state." The Republican offer was signed by Boehner, House Republican leader Eric Cantor and the chairmen of committees involved in budgeting and tax issues. All have taken part in the various rounds of negotiations with the White House and congressional Democrats since 2010, including failed deficit reduction talks, debt ceiling brinksmanship that sparked last year's unprecedented downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, and a special committee that was unable to reach agreement on a deficit reduction plan. Obama's re-election and Democratic retention of their Senate majority last month ensured their side's participants in the fiscal cliff talks would remain the same. The current negotiations take place amid the lame-duck session of Congress before the newly elected legislators arrive in January. Possible outcomes include an agreement now to avoid the fiscal cliff and devise a framework for further negotiations in the new Congress on a broader deficit reduction deal. Coburn, however, worried that politics will continue to trump reason in Washington. "I'm okay to compromise even on some of my issues if in fact we'll solve the problem," he said Monday night. "But what we have is a game being played ... for the extreme right wing and the extreme left wing in this country rather than coming together and leading and solving the problem." The GOP proposal includes $800 billion from tax reform, $600 billion from Medicare reforms and other health savings and $600 billion in other spending cuts, House Republican leadership aides said. It also pledges $200 billion in savings by revising the consumer price index, a measure of inflation. It followed a weekend of harsh exchanges between the sides, with each claiming the other wasn't sincere about striking a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff, a scenario many economists say would hurt the U.S. economy. Five ways to fix the fiscal cliff White House spokesman Dan Pfeiffer criticized the Republican offer for not meeting "the test of balance." "Until the Republicans in Congress are willing to get serious about asking the wealthiest to pay slightly higher tax rates, we won't be able to achieve a significant, balanced approach to reduce our deficit," Pfeiffer said. The White House has made clear Obama will veto any measure that fails to increase tax rates on the wealthy. However, aides have signaled a possible willingness to negotiate the specific rate increase. Republicans offered the plan amid pressure for a House vote -- which Boehner has so far prevented -- on the Senate measure. Democrats launched a procedural effort Tuesday to try to force a vote. While some Republicans have signaled their support for making sure tax rates stay at current levels for most Americans, the discharge motion by Democrats to essentially overrule Boehner's opposition to bringing up the Senate tax measure was expected to fail. "Out of 435 members of the House, we only need a couple dozen Republicans to sign the discharge petition," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in urging her colleagues to support the move. " ... Either sign the petition, urge the speaker to bring the bill to the floor, or explain to your constituents why you do not want them to have this $2,000 tax break." Listen: WWJD... about taxes? In line with his stances during his first term and reelection campaign, Obama's deficit-reduction plan would increase taxes by almost $1 trillion over 10 years, a significant portion of a $4 trillion overall deficit-reduction goal. It also would close loopholes, limit deductions, raise the estate tax rate to 2009 levels and increases tax rates on capital gains and dividends. The Obama plan includes $50 billion in stimulus spending for programs intended to create jobs, such as repairing roads and bridges. Republicans object to any increase in tax rates, even for the wealthiest Americans. Instead, they want additional revenue to come from broader tax reform that lowers rates but eliminates loopholes and deductions. Democrats respond that closing some tax loopholes for the wealthy would fail to generate enough revenue to contribute significantly to deficit reduction. Coburn, however, rejected that argument. "That's baloney," he said. "It's easy to get $800 billion out of the wealthy in this country by limiting deductions and taking away options that specifically benefit only the well-off in this country." Experts have said failing to reach a fiscal cliff deal and devise a framework for a broader deficit reduction package to be negotiated when the new Congress is seated in January will cause economic turmoil. The non-partisan Tax Policy Center estimates that middle-class families would pay about $2,000 a year more in taxes without action. The CNN/ORC International poll last week showed 56% of respondents said higher taxes were a fair tradeoff if it helps lower-income people, while 36% said taxes should be kept low to create jobs. Another survey, by ABC News and the Washington Post, showed two thirds of respondents support Obama's call for holding down tax rates for everyone except the wealthiest Americans. Defense companies see cuts coming even with a budget deal CNN's Ashley Killough, Adam Levy, Deirdre Walsh, Jessica Yellin and Greg Botelho contributed to this report.

Disability-compensation claims lag as ‘VA backlog’ worsens

By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor The average wait time for wounded veterans to see their disability-compensation claims completed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has now grown to 262 days — or nearly nine months — according to a federal website and three watchdog groups. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki earlier this year vowed to shrink the so-called "VA backlog" to 125 days by 2015 as the agency finishes transitioning to a digital processing system. Despite that promise, the claims-completion gap has expanded steadily during the past year. The VA's benefits-aspiration web page shows the average claims-processing time was 223 days in October 2011, 246 days in April 2012, 257 days in July and 260 days in August. In fact, the backlog has doubled in size since 2008, congressional members report. The agency called it widening claims backlog "unacceptable" but said it is taking steps to try to fix that problem. "VA has completed a record-breaking 1 million claims per year the last three fiscal years. Yet too many Veterans have to wait too long to get the benefits they have earned and deserve," the VA said in a statement emailed to NBC News on Tuesday. "That's unacceptable, and VA is building a strong foundation for a paperless, digital disability claims system — a lasting solution that will transform how we operate and eliminate the claims backlog. This paperless technology is being deployed to 18 regional offices in 2012, and it will reach all 56 VA Regional Offices by the end of 2013 to help deliver faster, better decisions for Veterans." The move to paperless processing "will ensure we achieve" Shinseki's 2015 goal, the VA said, adding: "Fixing this decades-old problem isn't easy, but we have an aggressive plan that is on track to succeed." In 2011, VA paid nearly $5 billion in compensation to wounded veterans, it reported.  The VA cited four reasons for what it calls "claims growth":  Increased demand — "the result of 10 years of war" and due to many veterans returning "with severe, complex injuries";   in 2010, Shinseki decided the VA claims system should include the recognition of medical conditions related to Agent Orange exposure (240,000 claims were processed in 2011 for such exposure) as well as "Gulf War Illness";  approximately 45 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are currently seeking compensation for injuries related to their service — and that marks a "historical high" for the VA following wars. Those claims include an average of eight to 10 medical issues per claim, more than double the Vietnam era; the VA says it is doing "better outreach" to veterans "to educate them about the benefits they've earned." Still, the thickening backlog drew fire from veterans advocates and from Capitol Hill. "These delays are indicative of a out-dated system," said Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group representing more than 200,000 veterans. "The Department of Veterans Affairs promises year after year that they'll reduce the backlog. Instead, it's gotten worse. While the reasons for this are complicated, the fact remains that these continuous delays greatly impact the daily lives of veterans who are waiting for care and benefits," Tarantino said. "Veterans deserve better." Last Wednesday, during a contentious hearing examining the VA's spending and larger accountability, Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, told VA Deputy Secretary Scott Gould "the truce is over" between Congress and Gould's agency. Miller became visibly frustrated during the hearing after Gould repeatedly said he could not or would not answer specific questions from committee members on spending and the agency's internal discipline over admitted ethical missteps. Told Tuesday that the claims backlog has nearly reached nine-months long on average, Miller said the wait time is another example of VA's failure to keep its promises to veterans. Click here for more military-related coverage from NBC News. "VA continues to tout its disability claims transformation plan to clean up the backlog by 2015. Without any details of the plan ... which continues to increase on a daily basis — and which has doubled in the past four years — I remain highly suspicious of any plan that claims to be able to reverse the problems in this process overnight," Miller said in an email to NBC News. "As Congress has said for many years now, VA needs to look at the root of the problem of the backlog — training, management, oversight, and technology — and work forward from those four points to address this problem," Miller added. "Quick fixes will no longer work, and will continue to make veterans wait months, sometimes years, on end for an answer." While the VA said its pilot paperless program has cut average processing times from 250 days to 119 days at those test offices, veterans in seven other cities were still waiting — as of October — longer than one year, on average, for their disability claims to complete their trek through the VA pipeline, according to the VA's online chart. Those cities — and the average claims-processing times in their VA regional offices are: Waco, Texas (418 days), Los Angeles (394 days), New York City (380 days), Chicago (378 days), Oakland (377 days), Indianapolis (373 days), and Phoenix (365 days), according to the VA site. In October 2011, no veterans were waiting more than a year, on average, for their disability claims to be processed, the VA site shows. In Waco, the average wait during October 2011 was 309 days. That means the backlog has increased in that city by 35 percent during the past year. "Despite promises of an improvement, veterans wait about three months longer than they did in May 2011. In fact, the VA's own numbers show the average wait time veterans face has gotten longer every single month over the last year and a half," said Aaron Glantz, a reporter with the Berkeley, Calif.-based Center for Investigative Reporting. The group keeps its own map, titled "Waiting For Help," which shows the backlog's highs and lows in individual cities. According to CIR's tally, 821,804 veterans now are waiting for their claims to be processed by the VA. That's actually a scrap of good news: it marks a slight decrease from in the number in that queue as compared to Aug. 25, when 899,000 veterans had compensation and pension claims pending.  CIR describes itself as "the nation's oldest nonprofit investigative reporting organization." Glantz acknowledges a personal interest in the backlog that stems from his years (2003 to 2005) working as a journalist in Iraq. "Ever since I returned home, I've been deluged with phone calls and emails from veterans who say they returned home from the war to face a battle with the government for the benefits they earned," Glantz said. "I've seen veterans fall into suicide and homelessness while they wait. "Today, I received a call from a female Iraq war veteran who is living on the street with her 20-month daughter," he added. "She has been waiting for two years for the VA to rule on her disability claim for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." 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